Orient CEM65002D (Blue Mako) Reviews

Hi all,

There was a thread here asking where are all the Blue Mako posts? This is another Mako post and I hope it will bring out more posts.

Late last year I purchased an Orient CEM65002D AKA Blue Mako. When I first opened the box I was completely blown away by its deep beautiful blue color of the dial. The polished area on the case and bracelet were flawless. I took it out of the box and was amazed by the weight of this watch, a rock solid watch that is built like a tank.

The dial

The dial is absolutely breath taking. It is coated with lacquer or plastic coating that is adding shimmer to it change the color in different color. In certain lighting conditions it could get really deep bright blue to almost black in dimmed light conditions. The dial is very easy to read since the indices are chromed and filled with almost white illumination material. The hands are also chromed and filled with illuminating material. However, the hands have a larger chrome area which your eyes catch in any angle you look at the watch.

Bezel

The bezel is 60 clicks unidirectional with a blue insert and a PIP. I find it difficult to turn sometimes however, using a fingernail helps.

Crown / Pusher

The crown has the Orient symbol, and it is well protected by the case. It has three positions.

Screwed down which is locked.

First pull which will change the date.

Second pull which will set the time.

It is solid in operation and very smooth. The pusher is very solid as well. With a screw housing once opened, when pushing on the pusher it will change the day with very smooth operation.

Case back

Not much to say about it but here is a photo of it.

Bracelet

The links for this bracelet are solid and uses split pins to connect the links. It is very sturdy yet extremely easy to size on you own. The links are brushed finished with polished sides. It adds a nice contrast and blends nicely with the case. The deployment closure is as smooth as it can get with a double locking feature and three micro adjustment places. Very easy to release and lock.

Lume,

The lume is not something I am excited about. Having said that I still find it legible in complete darkness, but I wish it was brighter. It will glow for the night after a little bit of charging but I wish it was brighter, much brighter.

In conclusion,

This watch is worth every penny. The quality is superb, and the build is solid. The time keeping is surprisingly accurate at -3 sec/day which for an automatic is extremely good.

Orient Blue Mako review

This is my first review, but I like to contribute when I can.

For review is my Orient CEM65002D, more affectionately known as the Blue Mako, a 200m dive-style watch.

Overview

I bought this pretty-much-new Mako off a member over at SCWF, and it's everything it's cracked up to be. Honestly, I knew it was a good looking watch, but for under $100 this is, hands down, the best deal around on a "do anything" watch. Not too tool-watchy, you can wear this to work, but it'll look good with shorts and a t shirt. They used to be very easy to find on eBay, but now it's mostly black or pepsi makos (the other variants), sometimes with rubber strap, so keep a look out on the sales corner if you want to snag one at a good price.

Movement information

The movement is an in-house Orient automatic movement. It does not wind or hack, but the winding system is very efficient, a la Seiko's 7s26--just pick it up and it'll start! Some Swiss movements need a little handwinding to get them going. I don't know too much about it, but I've read that it is more accurate out of the box than the 7s26, and as far as I can see, it's true. This thing runs about +6/day, which is very good for an unregulated watch, and certainly good enough for me. This movement, together with the 7s26, are commonly said to be able to run many years without servicing. Don't know how true that is, will know 10 years down the line.

Case

The fit and finish are exceptional at this price point: <$100, which is pretty much the lowest price you can get for a mechanical watch. Polished sides, brushed lugs. It's 41-42mm wide (not exact, no ruler), and fairly thin, I'd say 13mm (again, no ruler) with 22mm lugs. It is a nice, modern size dive watch. Compared to my SKX007, it wears smaller. It might be a little wider, not sure, but it is much thinner. The low profile makes it easy to slip under a cuff, or at least not to catch it on things like doorjambs. The caseback is nothing special, no deep engravings just a laser-etched logo and model number, but what do you expect? It's definitely functional and comfortable on the wrist.

Now, a special touch on the watch: the crown is signed! The roughly $1800 Seiko Marine Master, flagship non-Spring Drive diver, doesn't have a signed crown, and Orient is putting it on a sub $100 watch? It is nicely signed and is almost vertically aligned when fully screwed in. The threads are a nice quality, screws in extremely smoothly (no gritty feeling for those of you who know). There are Rolex-esque crown guards to protect it.

An interesting feature about the Mako is the day pusher located at 2. It has a screw-down lock so you don't accidentally push it in the water or with the back of your hand. Again, the lock screws down extremely smoothly. The day pusher looks pretty cool, but why would I want to switch the day when they always go in the same order and never skip days of the week? If it changed the date for 30 day months, then it'd be kind of useful. But it's clearly not because every other movement can handle day/date changes with the crown. It looks cool and is uniquely Orient, but it should be changing the days. Doesn't matter too much to me, but fairly useless.

Crystal

The Mako has a mineral crystal, which can scratch and probably will over its lifetime. Can't expect sapphire at this price point, but it's clear. It's flat, so will have that mirror effect in the water and reflects at the right angles in the day, too. No AR coating, of course, but it does the job. Fairly hard, keeps water out, and showcases the dial!

Dial/Hands

The blue is amazing. This is the Mako to get for your first. It has a shimmery, inky quality that changes color depending on the lighting. It looks like it belongs on an expensive watch. The indices are applied, and the lume application is very consistent. The Arabic 6, 9, and 12 look great with the lume inside, which is very white. The day/date windows are bordered in polished steel, a classy touch. The Orient logo of two lions is applied nicely. Fairly non-cluttered text, just Orient Automatic, Water Resist 200m.

No minute markers on the dial, but they can be found on the chapter ring, common on Japanese watches. The hands are in the sword style, like the Omega 2254. They can hold lots of lume, are chromed out and look GOOD. The seconds hand is tipped in red, but one complaint I have is the lack of lume on the seconds hand to tell if it's running, which is one reason why it's not a real ISO rated diver. Looks nice though.

Bracelet

The bracelet, man oh man. It's quality--solid links joined by split pins, machined double-push button fliplock clap. Notice I said the clasp is machined. $5000 Rolex Submariners have cheap stamped steel clasps. If you've ever felt one, they feel CHEAP. None of that rubbish on this fine $100 watch. The only thing that could be better is solid endlinks, but those are non-existant at the <$100 price level. Besides, when fit well they don't rattle at all. The clasp is signed with the Orient Logo and Orient quite nicely. It is easy to adjust and feels nice and heavy... a wonderful bracelet on a watch of any price. Definitely get the bracelet and not the rubber strap.

Bezel

This is another thing that contributes to the Mako being a "dive-style" watch instead of a true diver, like the Seiko SKX007. It is 60 clicks, unidirectional, so what's the problem? It is hard to grip. I've tried it wet and damn near impossible. The lume pip at 12 works. The bezel is ever so slightly off to the left (about 10 seconds' worth). It can't be adjusted because there are indentations at 5, 15, 25... and the bezel insert is cut to fit the indentations. It doesn't really bother me, just being a bit anal (but I know a lot of you guys are the same way!)

The bezel on the SKX007 is one of the best I've ever tried, but this is definitely functional and looks good, just hard to grip.

Closing remarks

My SKX007 is my tool diver, this is my casual/nice diver. Get yourself a blue mako. It's a great watch and deal!

Re: Orient Blue Mako review

Great review and having had my Blue Mako for about 2 weeks, fully agree with your points. Mine runs +1sec per day (amazing) and the signed crown aligns horizontally when screwed in (a nice touch). Mine is on the "rubber" strap, I'm trying very hard to source an original bracelet!
Thanks again, and yes, these are amazing watches for the price!

Re: Orient CEM65002D (Blue Mako) Reviews

chiming in here to echo the same sentiment as the above reviews and comments. I picked up the pepsi bezel since the blue mako is nigh near impossible to find new these days, and it is keeping great time out of the box. Well within cosc standards for a non Cosc movement. It is not hackable, but i managed to put a little pressure on the crown in the 3 position to "hack" and synchronize it with my Omega seamaster and the time.gov website. 3 days in a row and it is +3 or +4 seconds per day on my wrist. I already picked up the black dial as a gift for the holidays for my brother, I was that impressed with this watch.

Re: Orient CEM65002D (Blue Mako) Reviews

Hi all,

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I was hoping you guys can answer my question about this watch.

I just bought an Orient Mako (Pepsi with rubber strap). I noticed that the day indicator updates at around 2am and once again at around 4am. For example, the day indicator goes from Sun to Sun* at 2am, then it changes to Mon at 4am. Is this the normal behavior? Shouldn't it update at midnight? The date indicator does update at midnight.

It doesn't really bother me, but I'm curious.

Btw, the rubber strap is way too long for my small wrist. I had to punch a hole to make it fit my wrist. I might have to cut the bottom strap to shorten it too, but I'm still debating whether I should do this or not.

Re: Orient CEM65002D (Blue Mako) Reviews

Ok it looks like no one has mentioned the serious flaw on this watch: the end links. You'll see it soon enough when they start to rattle and clink. I have never seen a watch that does this, not even $20 Timex's so this is serious stuff. I'm currently in the process of swapping out the bracelet. If it doesn't work I'm going to smash this POS to pieces with a hammer.